Lorne Restaurant

Lorne Restaurant | seasonal modern British and European food in Victoria, London

Lorne Restaurant

WE ARE OPENING ON SUNDAYS Due to popular demand we are delighted to announce we will open for Sunday lunches from 13th May 2018.

We'll be offering a special 3-course set menu unique to Sundays -- check back here soon for a sample menu -- but think more than your average Sunday roast.

http://www.lornerestaurant.co.uk

Lorne Restaurant | London Eater

The restaurant is co-owned by Peter Hall and Katie Exton, who are Chef and Sommelier/FOH respectively.

I am of the generation that reveres the Phil Howard ‘gene pool’ (for want of a better term) and I think most who pass through The Square are smart professionals and usually go on to build their own successful restaurants.

And so A.Wong (still IMO the best Chinese restaurant in town) isn’t so lonely now in gastro-lean Victoria, with Lorne a couple of doors down, and I love everything about this place.

Perfectly creamy white centre, a lightly coated and crispy crust that has the look and taste of a textbook butter baste pan roast, generous ladle of delicious jus all over it.

Lorne Restaurant Modern British Set Lunch £22 for 2 courses + drinks + service ALC £35 to £40 for 3 courses + drinks + service Lorne Restaurant 76 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1DE Tel: 020 3327 0210 Tube: Victoria

Lorne, London: Restaurant Review - Decanter

But now, incongruously situated in a row of dodgy diners, we have Lorne, which has been set up by former River Café sommelier Katie Exton and chef Peter Hall, who worked together at Chez Bruce and The Square.

But with a cleverly curated selection of bottles from both Old and New World, it’s very much a ‘destination wine list’ as they put it.

Pursuing my usual philosophy of ordering wines I don’t know, I picked a glass of Autòcton’s Blanco 2015 – a deliciously floral Catalunyan field blend of Malvasia, Xarel-lo, Macabeu and Vermell for a very reasonable £7 – which sailed through both a clean-flavoured warm salad of chiogga beets and castelfranco (radicchio), and a well-seasoned rabbit terrine.

I passed on the opportunity to explore the dessert wine list in favour of a pot of Shire Highland black tea from Malawi, from the Rare Tea Co, with my homely pud of Yorkshire curd tart and builders’ tea ice cream – a match I’d strongly recommend.

Lorne is one of a growing band of engagingly casual London restaurants including Noble Rot, Six Portland Road and The Winemakers Club, who put wine at the heart of their operations.

Lorne, restaurant review: Innovation by way of the station | London ...

We were given good bread with some deliciously green and peppery olive oil, direct from the Sicilian family farm of one of the people working in Lorne, as we consulted the menu, which offers five choices for each of three courses, and the wine list, altogether more enticing reading.

The menu doesn’t match up — as is often the case with Modern British — meaning heritage ingredients have been hopefully assembled rather than compellingly fused, connotation and visual appeal mattering more than substance.

It had, however, an intensely fungal flavour,  going well with the bird, a fatty slice of black pudding, and the trophy ingredient, soft-cooked Catalan green onions (festively eaten there barbecued and dipped into romesco sauce, but now a fanciful adornment to on point menus here, despite not having much over a mature spring onion or infant leek, treated the same way).

The short rib beef, pear, cavolo nero, onion vinaigrette (£22) reproduced the mushiness of the terrine, long braising having softened the meat, despite it being still on the bone, to the point where it had critically lost texture and flavour, as if the chef didn’t dare offer anything more challengingly carnivorous, while the salty cavolo nero, diced fruit and pickly but soft onion seemed another rehearsal of the same taste combination.

Yorkshire curd tart, builders’ tea ice cream (£7) could have been served as a plate-sized summary of all that’s dodgy about Modern British cooking: a dry slice of cake not transfigured by its echt origins, plus an ice-cream — clearly meant as a folksy but also knowingly postmodern take on exotic tea-flavoured ices — which  tasted odd without being nice.

Matthew Bayley reviews Lorne, London: 'I half expected Sarah Lund ...

Simple food, done well.

Just simple food, done well.

Lorne, London SW1: 'A soothing place to be' – restaurant review ...

Lorne’s initial hook for me is its pedigree: partners Katie Exton (sommelier and front of house) and Peter Hall (chef) have between them worked in some serious restaurant royalty: the Square, where the duo met, the River Cafe, Chez Bruce, Brawn and San Francisco’s hugely celebrated Benu.

As soon as you think of a niggle without even voicing it (“Umm, not that keen on this table”), she’s on it, moving us from a two-top squashed beside other customers who could hear our every bitch and snark to a larger table where we can spread out and set about ordering from an intriguing menu.

It could be mistaken for a slightly worthy temple to clean eating, if it weren’t for that sybaritic, generous and joyous wine list, which we hit a bit too enthusiastically (and get the bill to prove it): our Mâcon-Bussières, as luscious as far grander chardonnays; a clever house cocktail based on beetroot and vodka; a daft fizzy pink with pudding.

The pudding is like mulch and loam and fudge and blood in the most delicious way, loose-grained and coarse, studded with nuggets of fat and a backnote of red chilli; I find out later that it’s the recherché Christian Parra boudin noir, as used, I think, at Brawn (and certainly at Brawn chef Ed Wilson’s previous gig at Terroirs.

I’m not overwhelmed by an over-stiff custard with rhubarb, pistachio and cubes of chewy gingerbread, but the pal’s chocolate pavé with banana, peanut and praline is as fine a piece of the patissier’s art as you’ll find outside Paris.

Lorne Restaurant | Restaurants in Pimlico, London

A neighbourhood spot from a pair who first met at Mayfair restaurant The Square.

If you’re here for an informal bite, head for the airy front bar, sit at the marble counter and bury your face in foliage.

Or later, a chocolate crémeux – somewhere between a heavy mousse and a ganache – with raspberry coulis, fresh raspberries and a still-warm, just-made granola bar.

Exton, a young sommelier so savvy but welcoming that I find myself with a bit of a girl-crush, is constantly on hand, making everyone feel completely at home.

Lorne is also on the pricy side for a neighbourhood restaurant, even if that neighbourhood happens to be Pimlico.